Stretchable semiconductor elements and stretchable electrical circuits

Abstract

The invention provides methods and devices for fabricating printable semiconductor elements and assembling printable semiconductor elements onto substrate surfaces. Methods, devices and device components of the present invention are capable of generating a wide range of flexible electronic and optoelectronic devices and arrays of devices on substrates comprising polymeric materials. The present invention also provides stretchable semiconductor structures and stretchable electronic devices capable of good performance in stretched configurations.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION [0001] This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Nos. 60 / 577,077, 60 / 601,061, 60 / 650,305, 60 / 663,391 and 60 / 677,617 filed on Jun. 4, 2004, Aug. 11, 2004, Feb. 4, 2005, Mar. 18, 2005, and May 4, 2005, respectively, which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties to the extent not inconsistent with the disclosure herein.STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT [0002] This invention was made, at least in part, with United States governmental support awarded by Department of Energy under Grant No. DEFG02-91ER45439 and the Defense Advanced Projects Agency under Contract F8650-04-C-710. The United States Government has certain rights in this invention.BACKGROUND OF INVENTION [0003] Since the first demonstration of a printed, all polymer transistor in 1994, a great deal of interest has been directed at a potential new class of electronic systems comprising flexi...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0011] The present invention provides methods, devices and device components for fabricating structures and / or devices, such as semiconductor-containing electronic devices, on substrate surfaces, such as plastic substrates. Specifically, the present invention provides printable semiconductor elements for fabricating electronic devices, optoelectronic devices and other functional electronic assemblies by flexible, low cost printing methods. It is an object of the present invention to provide methods and devices for fabricating semiconductor elements, such as unitary single crystalline inorganic semiconductors having selected physical dimensions ranging from about 10s of nanometers to about 10s of centimeters, which are capable of high precision assembly on substrate surfaces via a range of printing techniques. It is another object of the present invention to provide methods for assembling and / or patterning printable semiconductor elements using dry transfer contact printing and / or solution printing techniques which provide good placement accuracy and pattern fidelity over large substrate areas. It is further an object of the present invention to provide good electronic performance integrated electronic and / or optoelectronic devices comprising one or more printable semiconductor elements supported by a plastic substrate, particularly fully flexible thin film transistors having printable semiconductor elements exhibiting good electronic performance characteristics, such as field effect mobilities, threshold voltages and on-off ratios.

Problems solved by technology

Second, the inherent flexibility of these substrate materials allows them to be integrated into many shapes providing for a large number of useful device configurations not possible with brittle conventional silicon based electronic devices.

For example, bendable flexible electronic devices are expected to enable fabrication of new devices, such as electronic paper, wearable computers and large-area high resolution displays, that are not easily achieved with established silicon based technologies.

The design and fabrication of flexible electronic devices exhibiting good electronic performance, however, present a number of significant challenges.

First, the well developed methods of making conventional silicon based electronic devices are incompatible with most plastic materials.

In addition, most inorganic semiconductors are not intrinsically soluble in convenient solvents that would allow for solution based processing and delivery.

Second, although many amorphous silicon, organic or hybrid organic-inorganic semiconductors are compatible with incorporation into plastic substrates and can be processed at relatively low temperatures, these materials do not have electronic properties capable of providing integrated electronic devices capable of good electronic performance.

As a result of these limitations, flexible electronic devices are presently limited to specific applications not requiring high performance, such as use in switching elements for active matrix flat panel displays with non-emissive pixels and in light emitting diodes.

While this class of flexible electronic devices provides enhanced device electronic performance characteristics, use of pulsed laser annealing limits the ease and flexibility of fabrication of such devices, thereby significantly increasing costs.

This device field effect mobility is several orders of magnitude lower than the device field effect mobilities of conventional single crystalline inorganic thin film transistors, and is likely due to practical challenges in aligning, densely packing and electrically contacting discrete nanowires or nanoribbons using the methods and device configurations disclosed in Duan et al.

Particularly, the use of organic end groups to stabilize nanocrystal solutions and prevent agglomeration may impede establishing good electrical contact between adjacent nanoparticles that is necessary for providing high device field effect mobilities.

However, such motion is expected to generate mechanical strain on the individual rigid transistor device components.

This mechanical strain may induce damage to individual components, for example by cracking, and also may degrade or disrupt electrical contact between device components.

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